A journey through the legacy systems that destroy value in our organisations - from email overload and endless meetings, to fear culture and wheel reinvention.

1. LEGACY SYSTEMS DEFINED
A legacy system is an is an old process, tool or behaviour that
continues to be adopted even though more efficient methods of
performing a task are now available
Legacy systems are often irrelevant in their current context
Legacy systems are a key cause of
value erosion and business failure -
largely because they slow you down

2. NASA's Space Shuttle program still uses a large amount of 1970s-era technology. Replacement is cost-prohibitive
because of the expensive requirement for flight certification; the legacy hardware currently being used has completed
the expensive integration and certification requirement for flight, but any new equipment would have to go through
that entire process – requiring extensive tests of the new components in their new configurations – before a single
unit could be used in the Space Shuttle program. This would make any new system that started the certification
process a de facto legacy system by the time of completion.
Additionally, because the entire Space Shuttle system, including ground and launch vehicle assets, was designed
to work together as a closed system, and the specifications have not changed, all of the certified systems and
components still serve well in the roles for which they were designed.
YOU ARE NOT NASA
New technologies & new understanding of human behaviour
present an opportunity to replace legacy systems more
easily, cheaply & quickly than ever before
Your business is not a closed system, it is an open system -
the more open you make it, the more agility & innovation

3. THE IMPACT OF
LEGACY SYSTEMS
THEY MAKE YOU SLOW
THEY DESTROY PRODUCTIVITY

4. AT NO POINT IN HISTORY HAVE
COMMUNICATIONS & CULTURE
MOVED FASTER THAN TODAY
The accelerating pace of change in business, characterised by
global competition, means connecting the right people with the
right information to drive business decisions means the
difference between success and failure

5. IT’S NOT THE BIG THAT EAT THE
SMALL, IT’S THE FAST THAT EAT THE
SLOW
Avg life expectancy of companies in the S&P has dropped from
75 years (in 1937) to 15 years - collapsing under their own weight
Big business is suffering from long-running performance declines
Return on asset rates are declining, even as labour productivity rises
The 3/2 law of employee productivity states that trippling your
number of employees causes productivity to drop by half
Companies are no longer places that exist to drive down
costs by getting increasingly bigger. They’re places that
support and organise talented individuals to get better
faster by working with others

6. THE NEW WORLD ORDER
DEMANDS SPEED & AGILITY
This is the age of the collaborative, knowledge-based,
hyper-productive organisation – where teams are
connected across departments and geographies

7. WITH NEW CAPABILITIES COME
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
EXTERNAL INTERNAL
24-7 REAL TIME AUTONOMY
PRODUCT RESEARCH & COMPARISON TRANSIENCE & SELF EMPLOYMENT
3RD PARTY RECOMMENDATION BORDERLESSNESS
MISTRUST LEADERSHIP vs MANAGEMENT

8. EVERYONE CAN SHARE
WHAT THEY CARE ABOUT
POSITIVE NEGATIVE
REFERRALS & RECOMMENDATIONS BAD EXPERIENCES

9. SO YOU ACTUALLY NEED TO
BE A BETTER COMPANY
WITH A BETTER OFFERING

10. THIS IS THE ESSENCE OF BRAND
BUILDING IN THE 21st CENTURY
LOOKING BEYOND CAMPAIGNS

11. SOME BRANDS & AGENCIES ARE
ONLY FOCUSING ON THE FAÇADE
WHILE THE INNOVATORS OVERTAKE
BY FIXING WHAT LIES BENEATH

12. PEOPLE
PROCESS TECHNOLOGY

13. COSTS YOU ARE LIKELY TO BE INCURRING
NEEDLESSLY DUE TO LEGACY SYSTEMS INCLUDE...

14. THE COST OF
SEARCHING
A typical information worker now spends a
quarter of their day searching for the right
information to complete a given task
10% of a company’s salary costs is frittered away as
Source: Butler Group
employees scramble to find adequate and accurate
information to do their jobs

15. THE COST OF
COMPLEXITY
On average, the 200 biggest companies
are losing an estimated 10.2% of profit
as a result of unnecessary complexity
Removing this complexity would save each
firm $1.2 billion of lost profits on average -
or a total of $237 billion across all 200 firms

16. THE COST OF LEGACY
SERVICE MODELS
Call deflection savings from P2P support communities are typically 15-30%
= £millions cost savings + increased employee efficiency
Support communities increase conversions, average transaction value,
reach, engagement and SEO - often becoming #1 traffic driver to your site
Product issues are typically reported 3-4 weeks faster
through community vs traditional channels
Customer satisfaction results are typically 15–30% higher
amongst those who participate in user communities
Some companies are eliminating phone and email support altogether

17. THE COST OF LEGACY
DEVELOPMENT MODELS
BRINGING THE WALLS DOWN AROUND YOUR DATA DRASTICALLY
REDUCES DEVELOPMENT COSTS & ACCELERATES GROWTH
Amazon were already achieving $19bn
sales through their API by 2008
60% of eBay listings go through their API, with
$500m in mobile-based application revenue

18. THE COST OF
EMAIL ADDICTION
Email costs organisations of 3000 people £15 million per annum
– just over £5k per employee
For a larger organisation of 6000 people, the cost escalates to £64 million
– well over £10k per employee
Problems include ambiguous and unclear messages, email ‘overload’,
security and privacy issues and destructive interruptions

19. THE COST OF LEGACY
BUSINESS MODELS
ADAPT & OUTPERFORM
A better business model
often beats a better idea
or technology
Businesses compete
through their business
models - therefore the
business model itself is
a source of competitive
advantage
A disruptively innovative
business model can
become your company’s
key asset and USP

20. THE COST OF
ENDLESS MEETINGS
Professionals attend on average 61.8 meetings
per month; and over 50% of this time is wasted
Assuming each meeting is 1 hour long, this means
professionals are wasting 31 hours per month
On an average salary is £40k, this equates to
£7,400 wasted per employee each year

21. THE HIDDEN COST OF
FEAR
failure to innovate

22. THE HIDDEN COST OF
UNOPTIMISED COMMS
New knowledge in neuroscience and behavioural economics can
enable us to influence decision-making – yet these learnings are
rarely applied in organisations, leaving money on the table
For example a recent pilot study, applying behavioural economics
principles, claimed the NHS could save £250 million in missed
appointments simply by having patients write their own
appointment cards

23. THE HIDDEN COST OF
WHEEL REINVENTION

24. THE HIDDEN COST OF
PRESENTEEISM
TIME SPENT PHYSICALLY PRESENT BUT NOT REALLY DOING YOUR JOB

25. I’m distributing this presentation under a Creative Commons license,
so feel free to share and change it according to these terms:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Jane Young
• Technology entrepreneur and founder of boutique digital agency Kanbee, agile
project collaboration tool Scramblr and enterprise tool for innovation
acceleration Daander.
• Social business consultant to leading brands, helping them create and capture
value from emerging trends in technology, society and the workplace.
• Writing on social business and the new world order atwww.resonanceblog.com
• jane@resonanceblog.com @resonanceblog
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/janesyoung